Watching, from the Edge of Extinction

Even before humans appeared on earth, species were disappearing. Since the arrival of humans, the rate of extinctions has soared, accelerating as habitat disappears, the climate changes and plants and animals are hunted, caught or die of disease. Although some things are valued and appreciated more as they become rare, what is common today may be rare tomorrow and extinct soon after, lost forever. Here are some species, now extinct or rare, that I have been fortunate to see and write about in "Watching, from the Edge of Extinction," Yale University Press, 1999.